Bolster snubber wear plate

ABSTRACT

A wear plate is provided for the sloping friction face of a railway car bolster, the wear plate being held in operative position by the spring which urges a friction wedge toward the bolster and a vertical friction face of a railway car side frame.

Uited States Patet [191 Young BOLSTER SNUBBER WEAR PLATE [75] Inventor: Donald Marion Young, Hazel Crest,

Ill.

[73] Assignee: Amsted Industries Incorporated,

Chicago, Ill.

[22] Filed: March 2, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 120,205

[52] U.S. Cl. ..l05/197 DB, 105/226, 188/233.3 [51] lnt.Cl ..B61f 5/06, B61f 5/12, B6lf 5/50 [58] Field of Search....l05/l97 D, 197 DB, 207, 226; 188/2333 [4 1 Jan. 23, 1973 [56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 3,654,871 4/l972 Wallace ..l05/l97 DB Primary Examiner-Drayton E. Hoffman Assistant Examiner-Howard Beltran Attorney-Walter L. Schlegel, Jr. and Ralph M. Faust [57] ABSTRACT A wear plate is provided for the sloping friction face of a railway car bolster, the wear plate being held in operative position by the spring which urges a friction wedge toward the bolster and a vertical friction face of a railway car side frame.

2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures BOLSTER SNUBBER WEAR PLATE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Railway car trucks comprise, generally, spaced side frames, each having an opening wherein opposite ends of a bolster are resiliently supported by load carrying springs resting on the lower sill of each side frame window. Vertical oscillating movement of the bolster relative to the side frames is damped by friction wedges spring biased against vertical friction faces of the side frames and against sloping friction faces of the bolster. Continuous rubbing of the wedge against the sloping bolster surface wears away that surface, thereby decreasing the service life of the bolster. It has been the practice to repair the bolster by disassembling the truck in order to remove the bolster, and then rebuild the bolster friction faces by puddle welding. This repair procedure, however, is extremely expensive both in material utilized and the man-hours of labor required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The difficulty and expense of repairing the sloping bolster friction surfaces is overcome by providing a wear plate which is interposed between the friction wedge and the sloping bolster surface, one feature of the wear plate being that no fastening means such as bolts, rivets or weldment are required.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide means whereby wearing away of the bolster friction face will be eliminated.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a wear plate, for the sloping friction face of a railway car truck bolster, which requires no auxiliary fastening means to hold it in position.

Another object is the provision of a wear plate for the sloping friction face of a bolster, the wear plate being held in operative position by the wedge biasing springs.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention and from the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a railway car truck embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial vertical section through the bolster of FIG. 1, showing the wear plate in position against the sloping bolster surface;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the preferred form of a wear plate prior to its being bent to the contour shown in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a rear elevational view of a friction wedge showing its relationship to the wear plate when in operative position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, it is seen that a side frame comprises a pair of column members 12 (only one of which is shown) partly defining a bolster opening 14 in which there is spring supported, in a conventional manner, a bolster member 18. Each side frame column is provided with a vertical friction surface 16.

The bolster 18 is provided with a pocket 20 adjacent each column 12 and having spaced friction surfaces 22 which slope upwardly and outwardly toward the column friction surface 16. The bolster pocket 20 is arranged to receive a friction wedge indicated generally at 24 (see also FIG. 4). Each friction wedge comprises a vertical friction wall 26 frictionally engaged with the surface 16 of the side frame column. The wedge also comprises spaced angularly disposed friction surfaces 28 which are normally urged into complementary frictional engagement with the bolster friction surface 22 by means of a wedge spring 30 which normally engages a downwardly facing surface 32 of the friction wedge and an upwardly facing spring seat 34 of the bolster.

According to the present invention, there is provided a wear plate, indicated generally at 36, comprising spaced wear portions 38 and a horizontally extending leg 40. The plate may be cut or stamped flat as shown in FIG. 3, preferably of the American Institute of Steel and Iron Grade C-l095 steel, heat treated to a Brinell hardness of 350 to 405. The plate is then formed to the contour indicated in FIG. 2 and is assembled so that the spaced wear portions 38 extend along the sloping bolster friction surface 22 and so that the leg 40 overlies the upwardly facing seat 34 of the bolster. The friction wedge and spring 30 are then placed in position so that the wear plate is held in position and restrained from movement by downward pressure of the spring 30 and by the wedge 24. It should be noted that no auxiliary fastening means such as bolts, rivets, welding or the like are required. The extreme upper edge 42 of the wear plate may be curved, as indicated in FIG. 2, against the bolster surface in order to provide clearance between the upper edge of the wear plate and the friction wedge, thereby to eliminate the possibility of the friction surface of the shoe catching on the wear plate and interfering with proper operation of the snubbing arrangement.

The wear plate, if made approximately one-sixteenth of an inch thick, may be accommodated in a conventional snubbed railway car truck, such as that described, for example in US. Pat. No. 2,953,995, without the necessity of making any modifications either to the side frame or the bolster. A thicker wear plate may be utilized if bolster surface 22 is machined to accommodate the additional plate thickness. Obviously, if a thicker wear plate were provided in original equipment, the bolster casting could be modified to accommodate the extra thickness so that no machining would be required.

It is apparent that changes in the arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and the invention is not to be limited by the arrangement described as the preferred embodiment. For example, the invention may be utilized in a truck arrangement wherein the wedge pocket is located in the side frame column, and the wedge is urged against a sloping friction surface in the column and against a vertical friction surface on the bolster.

I claim:

1. In a railway car truck, a side frame having a column member partly defining a bolster opening; a bolster member resiliently supported in said opening; a vertical friction surface on one of said members; a sloping friction surface and a horizontally disposed spring seat on the other of said members; a friction wedge; a

tion surfaces and a horizontal spring seat, and a wedge urged toward said friction surfaces by a spring, the improvement which comprises a wear plate having spaced wear portions held against the sloping friction surfaces by the wedge, and a leg connecting said spaced wear portions being urged against the horizontal spring seat by said spring. 

1. In a railway car truck, a side frame having a column member partly defining a bolster opening; a bolster member resiliently supported in said opening; a vertical friction surface on one of said members; a sloping friction surface and a horizontally disposed spring seat on the other of said members; a friction wedge; a spring urging said wedge toward said friction surfaces; and a wear plate disposed between the wedge and the sloping friction surface; said wear plate including a leg which overlies said seat and is engaged by said spring and holds the wear plate between the wedge and sloping friction surface.
 2. In a railway car truck having a side frame and bolster, a vertical friction face on the side frame, a bolster pocket partially defined by spaced sloping friction surfaces and a horizontal spring seat, and a wedge urged toward said friction surfaces by a spring, the improvement which comprises a wear plate having spaced wear portions held against the sloping friction surfaces by the wedge, and a leg connecting said spaced wear portions being urged against the horizontal spring seat by said spring. 